COOLEY
HIGH (1975) Blu-ray
Director: Michael Schultz
Olive Films

From the same producer (Steve Krantz)/writer (Eric Monte) team of the
previous year’s THE NINE LIVES OF FRITZ THE CAT, came COOLEY HIGH, American
International Pictures’ (AIP’s) seminal urban comedy/drama which
was released in the midst of the Blaxploitation craze of the 1970s. The film
was a substantial success for AIP (and a departure from their usual exploitive
drive-in fare) and Monte (who had just scored big as co-creator of the hit series
“Good Times”) would soon after see the film loosely adapted as a
popular ABC comedy series. Also helping to spawn the careers of several up-and-coming
small screen stars, COOLEY HIGH makes its Blu-ray debut courtesy of Olive Films.

In 1964 on the North Side of Chicago, high school buddies Preach (Glynn
Turman, J.D.’S REVENGE) and Coshise (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, YOUNGBLOOD)
are dream-driven individuals yet totally disinterested with schoolwork. Coshise
is awarded a scholarship and Preach has aspirations of being a screenwriter,
but the pair spends their days with different sets of friends cutting class,
sneaking into the zoo, sipping wine in alleys, smoking dope, shooting dice and
slow-dancing with the local girls they’re trying to make it with. Preach
seduces a pretty and brainy student named Brenda (Cynthia Davis, who apparently
only made one movie) and they wind up losing their virginity together (in a
tender love scene featuring some tastefully displayed nudity that only a PG
movie in the 1970s could get away with). Things take a turn for the worst when
Preach and Cochise jump in a Cadillac with two delinquents; Preach takes over
the steering wheel, they’re chased by the police, and they end up crashing
the car before taking off on foot. Not knowing that the car was stolen, they
are soon arrested, but with their concerned teacher Mr. Mason (Garrett Morris,
“Two Broke Girls”) vouching for them to his detective friend, the
boys are set free while their two criminal cohorts serve time, vowing to do
them harm (over a misunderstanding) as soon as they are released.

As reinforced by AIP’s cutesy advertising campaign for the film,
COOLEY HIGH is known as “the Black version of AMERICAN GRAFFITI”
and as a nostalgic cinematic trip of frivolity and tragedy, it even ends with
similar “where are they now” descriptions for a number of the main
characters. Shot outside the studio system for a reported budget of around $750,000,
the film plays out as a series of humorous vignettes (one involving a gullible
“honky” john double-crossed by a small-time pimp) and sight gags
(a caged gorilla flings his feces at one of the boy’s chest, Cochise finds
a letter from a university thrown in the toilet by his baby brother, etc.) but
the humor is often edgy without being crude, and when the dramatic subtlety
comes into play, it’s thought-provoking stuff. Shooting the film on location
in Chicago, in around the housing-projects of the North Side, gives the film
a sense of urban authenticity, and many of the supporting cast (including Preach’s
mama) were actual residents rather than trained actors. Even though he was pushing
30 at the time, Turman does a terrific turn as Preach, as do Hilton-Jacobs and
Morris, both who would begin their run on two highly successful TV series the
same year (“Welcome Back Kotter” and “Saturday Night Live”).

Although the music score is by Freddie Perren (RECORD CITY), a number
of iconic Motown tunes were secured for the soundtrack and include the likes
of The Four Tops, The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles,
Mary Wells, Martha & The Vandellas, The Temptations, The Marvelettes, Luther
Allison, Barrett Strong and Junior Walker & The All-Stars. Although the
film is set in 1964, some of these songs were actually released after that time,
but the film has more than a few anachronisms (including numerous 1970s cars
in view) that you’ll just have to overlook. Monster movie fans will be
delighted to see an unforgettable scene which takes place in a theater showing
GODZILLA VS. THE THING (another AIP property, released by them in 1964) where
a riot breaks out! In 1976, ABC’s WHAT’S HAPPENING!! became the
sitcom based on this film, with only slight similarities, as COOLEY HIGH did
not feature three obese main characters having insults flung at them at every
given opportunity. Like COOLEY HIGH, WHAT’S HAPPENING!! does have a bespectacled
main character (in this case, Rog) as an inspiring writer (and another actor
pushing 30 playing a high school student), a sister named Dee, and a mama who
works a number of jobs to support her family and is not afraid to demand her
son get his belt so she can put him across his knee and give him a nice whipping!
The meek yet lovable sidekick character Pooter (played by Corin Rogers) likely
inspired WHAT’S HAPPENING!!’s Dwayne (played by Haywood Nelson).
Look out for a very young, uncredited Robert Townsend as a high school basketballer.

Previously released by MGM
on DVD in a full screen, non-anamorphic transfer, Olive Films remedies that
release with their Blu-ray (also being made available on standard DVD using
the same transfer) which presents the film in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio
in a 1080p transfer utilizing MGM’s recent HD master. Colors are deep
and vivid, fleshtones appear realistic and detail is solid, with COOLEY HIGH
never looking better. The DTS-HD Master Audio track provides the dialogue, music
and other earthy sounds perfectly. No subtitle options or extras are on the
disc. (George
R. Reis)